Fireworks still a go for Saturday despite rainy forecast

BANGOR, Maine — A threat of thunderstorms and rain Saturday night likely will not deter the planned Fourth of July fireworks show on the waterfront.

Officials maintained at 8 p.m. that the show still was on schedule. Sgt. Paul Edwards from the Bangor Police Department confirmed shortly after 8 p.m. that the “fireworks show is in fact still on and is to begin between 8:45 and 9:15 p.m., depending on when the best time in that span will be weather wise.”

Tony Bernatche, the president of the Bangor Fourth of July Corp., a nonprofit arm of the Bangor-Brewer Kiwanis Clubs, said Saturday afternoon the fireworks will go off in the rain, unless there is heavy wind.

The decision to call off the fireworks, Bernatche added, would come from the U.S. Coast Guard and a technician from Central Maine Pyrotechnics, the Hallowell-based company in charge of the display this year.

If the fireworks are postponed, the makeup date will be Sunday, July 5, said Central Maine Pyrotechnics Manager Carole Marson.

Saturday’s forecast, according to the National Weather Service in Caribou, includes showers and thunderstorms until 8 p.m. and scattered showers from 8 until 10 p.m. Rich Norton, a NWS meteorological intern, said the weather service has not yet issued a severe weather warning for the Bangor area because neither strong wind nor large hail is expected.

Sunday night’s weather doesn’t look much better. Forecasters aren’t expecting much precipitation during the day, but there could be scattered showers from 4 to 10 p.m., Norton added.